Photo by Wendi Kelly
I have seen my future and my future is NOW.
~ Wendi Kelly
Last year around this time, I began a weekly ritual called the Sunday Summit, a planning exercise recommended by my coach, Christine Kane.
Quite simply, the purpose of the Sunday Summit is a weekly ritual designed to help you celebrate your past week’s accomplishments and determine your upcoming week’s top priorities so that you can begin your week with clarity, purpose and vision.
I expected it to work. (All of Christine’s suggestions work.) I didn’t have to be sold on the idea of doing it, as I already had in place a daily time set aside to journal and reflect about my week and days anyway, so the only thing that really was an addition to my ongoing journey was the list of questions that she brought to the table.
All of them are great, and though I changed most of them slightly to fit my own personal lifestyle, I left one of them exactly as she suggested. It is the last question on the bottom of the page.
“How do I want to feel this week? Who do I want to BE?”
At first, when I would answer the question each week, the only thing I could think of that I wanted to feel was serenity. The only thing that I wanted to BE was a more pulled together, peaceful, in control person.
That surprised me. I kept expecting to want other things. I expected to want to be rich, powerful, passionate or thinner.
However, every time I went to write something down…all I could envision was a life without chaos.
So that was what I wrote down.
I want to feel like an artist who is serene, organized and creative. I want to BE peaceful, relaxed and calm.
I SO didn’t feel like that even ten percent of the time at first. But I kept writing it anyway. I stayed faithful to the IDEA of being that kind of person. (Even though part of me thought it was probably hopeless.)
Then a funny thing started happening on the way to the weekly Summit. I began to think of ways to become calmer. More Serene. More peaceful.
They would simply pop into my head at odd moments like a little coach whispering in my ear.
“Put on some calming, peaceful music while you work and you will feel more serene.”
“Clear off your desk and your work today will be a lot more peaceful.”
“Work slower to get things done faster, when you rush, you lose your serenity.”
I started to pay attention to the little ideas and tips that would make themselves clear to me. I began to listen for hints and ideas from people who embodied the spirit of serenity that I wanted to become.
In a short amount of time, I suddenly WAS more peaceful. I WAS more serene, I WAS living a life without chaos.
It felt like a miracle! I decided it worked so well for me that I added another component to the ritual and turned it into a nightly exercise in my gratitude journal right before bed.
“Who do I want to BE when I wake up in the morning?”
Now, every night before I go to sleep, I take a moment to focus on who I will be when I wake up in the morning. My subconscious mind has all night to prepare my mind for the ME I am becoming when I wake up. I have found it to be a great addition to the initial exercise.
The future is NOW
This week, I journeyed again to Asheville, N. Carolina to see my coach and our mastermind group. One of the things that Christine had us do the very first night was come to a party, as we WILL BE in 2016. At first, I will admit, I grumbled about the idea. I already have been focusing on a who do I want to BE NOW exercise every day and I didn’t see a purpose for propelling myself ahead five years. Yet the moment I walked into the party, all decked out in exactly what I’d like to wear for my stroll on an ocean beach five years in the future, my future had moved to RIGHT NOW. I couldn’t just see down the road to who I wanted to become, I saw and felt and LIVED- in the moment-who I AM, in the future version of me.
It felt amazing to be ME. It felt REAL to be me.
More importantly, it felt POSSIBLE to be me.
I WAS ME.
Crazy? Maybe. But I swear to you it works. Now that I have seen, felt and become the future me, for even a few hours, an amazing mind shift has occurred. I can BE the ME of the future…right now.
I don’t have to wait.
My New Ritual
I am tweaking my nightly ritual one more time as a result of this experience. Now, when I go to sleep at night, not only am I looking at who I want to be in the morning, but who I AM, right now, in my future. Who knows where I might REALLY be in five years now, because the ME I thought I wanted to become, has no plans to wait that long anymore.
My Future has arrived.
